Rudolph's milestone offers Yorkshire hope of salvation

Yorkshire 178 & 272-2 Nottinghamshire 545-7dec

Any notion that Yorkshire might be about to keel over at the feet of rivals Nottinghamshire was firmly quashed here as Jacques Rudolph and Anthony McGrath led a gritty fightback to leave their prospects of saving a draw look much brighter than they had 24 hours earlier.

With Rudolph registering his third century of the season and going on to 141 before Nottinghamshire at last capitalised on a rare error, the pair put on 211 for the second wicket. By the close, still with eight wickets in hand, Yorkshire had reduced their deficit to 95.

It spelled only frustration for Nottinghamshire, who had declared with a lead of 367 after David Hussey extended his batting masterclass for another 20 minutes in the morning to finish 251 not out.

But the message from captain Andrew Gale to his Yorkshire team, who had been uncharacteristically poor with the bat on the opening day, would have placed strong emphasis on application, and Rudolph and McGrath were right on message.

Rudolph's innings took him past 1,000 first-class runs for the season for the fourth year in a row and there will be concerns among Yorkshire supporters over reports in South Africa that the batsman, who gave up his international status to join Yorkshire under Kolpak rules in 2007, may be asked to play for South Africa again.

Last night Rudolph, who is under contract until the end of next season, said that he was "aware of the reports" but declined to comment further.

Nottinghamshire did not bowl nearly as well as on the first day, but Rudolph, on the other hand, offered them little encouragement, save for giving one chance, on exactly 100, when Ali Brown juggled the ball off Samit Patel's bowling at slip but put it down.

He was out deep into the final session, after Nottinghamshire took the new ball, when he drove forcefully at a ball from Darren Pattinson outside off stump but managed only to deflect it low off the edge to gully, where Andre Adams took his second catch of the day, having held a superb reflex effort earlier to dismiss Adam Lyth.